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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Hoops

I know lots of times, you hear about all the hoops adoptive
families have to jump through. You look at me with sideways eyes when I tell
you that it took me 28+ hours to get a package shipped. You can’t imagine the
amount of red tape and bureaucracy, much less time zone hopping that has to be
done to just mail a letter.

So, while I’m still in the emotional throws of it, I wanted
to share what my last 28+ hours have looked like.

I think last you heard, we were having an issue with Rob’s
visa invitation. We have a scan of the invitation and the FMS service inputted
the visa into the ‘system’. This took 24 days to accomplish. But, there was a
typo in the inputting process. The number on the bottom of the scan doesn’t
match the number in the system. Our travel agent said, you have two choices 1.
Correct the system 2. Get the original.

We have requested #1, but since it took 24 days the first
time, we are also pursuing #2. You would think this would be easy. They scanned
me the original, so now they need to put it in a Fed-ex envelope and ship it to
me. They even have my fed-ex number.

Cast of Characters:

Judy – Adoption Agency contact – US side

Vita – Adoption Agency contact – Sweet Girl side

Michael – DHL, US

Svetlana – DHL (region)

Here’s where it went downhill:

Tuesday,
10:30am

Judy – “(Region) has (only) DHL direct
service. They told Vita that they would
send you corrected original documents by DHL. What they would like you to do is
visit or call your local DHL office and ask them to send confirmation that you
would pay for the DHL from (region).
Evidently this is something they have done successfully before.”

Tuesday,
12:00pm

Me – I tried
to call the DHL 800 number. The person didn’t speak English well. He told me
that he couldn’t give me the number to the local DHL office. I tried to see if
they would send confirmation to (region). He said he couldn’t do that. I asked
if they could send it COD, he said (country) is an at risk country and COD,
prepay, and recipient services aren’t available there. He wants me to contact
the shipper and give them my account number. I told him I didn’t have one and
could I create an account. He said I couldn’t have an account to ship
internationally if I wasn’t a business.

Tuesday
12:10pm

Me – Try DHL
online chat services. They are of no help.

Tuesday,
12:15pm

Me – Fire
off emails: 1. Whitney asking if she has DHL. She doesn’t, but she’s trying to
get a DHL account started so we can us. 2. Judy and ask for alternatives
including asking if they can mail it to Vita and she can DHL it to me.

Tuesday,
12:45pm

Vita - I
think it'll be much faster if Adoption Center will ship the invitation through
DHL. But for that they and DHL office in (Region) asked to confirm that the
Gorrells will pay for DHL. For that the Gorrell family should contact any DHL
office in their area and inform them that they are expecting the package from
(Address) and they are ready to pay for that package. The contact person in
(region) is Zotova Lubov, phone number is (xxxx) 32-38-61

I was told
that as soon as DHL office in USA contact DHL office in Vladimir (their email
is: XXX@vinfo.ru) they'll pick up the
documents and send them to Gorrells.

Tuesday,
2:00pm

Me - I try the
online chat again. I get a guy who is willing to look for the shipment in the
system and see if there is a hold on it. He can’t find the shipment and tells me
he can’t help until it’s in the system. We proceed with a circus of me asking
what else I can do and him saying he cannot help for what feels like forever.

Tuesday,
3:30pm

Me- Using my
sleuth skills, I find what I think is a local DHL number. Call and Michael
answers the phone. Explain situation to Michael and he tells me to forward him
the email and he’ll see what he can do.

Overnight

Me- Freaking
out wondering if I messed up his email and dreading the morning when I’m going
to have to call back and ask if he found out anything.

Wednesday
6:44am

Michael – “I
was able to contact DHL (region), they advised the below information:

(Svetlana at DHL (region) emailed: As I
understand, there is a consignee in the USA who needs to get an invitation from
(country).So, there are two ways: 1. Shipper calls DHL (region) and pays for
sending. We will p/up it and send to the consignee. Or 2. The consignee calls
the nearest office DHL and makes Transport Collect, if he wants to pay.)

We do not
offer the transport collect option in the US, are you able to have the shipper
use there DHL shipping information to send this to the US and send you the
bill? We could try to have an account set up in your name but we would still
need to get your account number to the shipper to process the shipment. If you
would like to create an account customer service would be able to assist.”

Wednesday
7:25am

Me – After
evaluating the risk and alternatives, I emailed Svetlana my credit card
information including security code thinking this would satisfy her #1 since
she was DHL (region).

Wednesday
7:35am

Svetlana – “You
should call the nearest DHL office and make a request for delivery from (country) to USA. You will pay there. Our colleagues will send your request to our office
and then we will make pick-up.”

Wednesday
7:55am

Me – I
attempt to beg Svetlana through email to just charge my card. I also email Judy
again and ask if Vita can just pay for it. I also email Michael and ask for
other ideas.

Wednesday
9:10am

Svetlana – “I'm
sorry, but we can't use your card. The procedure says that your local DHL
office should send the request to (country).”

Wednesday
9:42am

Michael
calls. We brainstorm some options. None sound great to either of us. He says
he’s going to go look into some things.

Wednesday
11:05am

Whitney is
still trying to set up an account, but DHL is slower than molasses.

Wednesday
11:57am

Got a call
voicemail (because I’m attempting to work in between all this!!) from Michael –
says to call him.

Wednesday 12:55pm

Call Michael
back. He says it’s ridiculous that we have to jump through these hoops. He’s
going to contact DHL (region) and just use his DHL corporate number. He says
he’s going to handle all the details and try to get it out tomorrow. I tell him
as soon as it gets there Rob can go pick it up (DHL is about 30 minutes away,
between our house and Robs work) and will pay for it. He says that we aren’t
allowed to pay for it and he’s so sorry for all that we’ve had to go through
just to ship a piece of paper and it wasn’t supposed to be this hard. I’m a
sobbing mess.

We know
there are no guarantees that he can get it here, but just the fact that I’m not
fighting alone anymore was so great to me.